The Kingdom of Sun and Moon
by Rika760
Summary: Evil is one one side, and good on the other. The kingdom is balanced right now, but who knows how fast that could change? The story follows a young girl about to rule the kingdom with her sister. She isn't ready for what's about to happen... no one is.


There was once a kingdom where evil dwelled on one side and good on the other.  Right in the middle was the most dangerous place to be because one could not tell friend from foe.  Right in the middle, was a deep forest where it was possible to meet anyone, good or evil.  On the evil side, it was dark all the time except for midday when occasionally it peeked out from luminous clouds.  The other side was naturally light all the time, but it was spelled to have a night where it dimmed lightly; dark enough to permit sleep and light enough to keep out evil.  Although it seemed that it would be impossible for peace to exist there, it wasn't the war-torn kind of place that most people that most people thought of.  The thing was that all the dark creatures were afraid to come in to "the land of light," as it was referred to, and everyone from the land of light was afraid to go to "the dark lands."  On top of that, no one outside of this kingdom knew it existed because it was avoided at all costs and as time wore on, it was forgotten and became more of a folk legend... and that's where our story begins.

~ chapter 1 ~

"Aubrianna, stop slouching!"

"Yes, Aunt Ondrea."

"Remember now, you will eventually be the Sylfaen and it is my job to prepare you for the worst.  When you become the Sylfaen, I hope you recognize that everyone will be looking at you and be criticizing you every day for everything you do, every day of your life.  Everyone's eye will be upon you."

_"How encouraging," thought Aubrianna, "of course, by now, I ought to be used to it.  I get it almost twenty times a day from Aunt Ondrea."_

"As will a many evil creature," said Ciara, "they will be waiting for just the right time and the moment that you let your gaurd down, they'll spring.  But Aunt, Aubri understands all that.  I have full confidence in her."  Ciara then gave Aubrianna one of her sisterly smiles.

"Also," continued Ciara, "as many scrapes as Aubri's gotten into, she came out fine in all of them."

_"That's not exactly true," thought Aubri, "I got hurt in lots of them... no broken bones though... and obviously I didn't die."_

"I don't think Aubrianna does understand about that," said Aunt Ondrea, "Aubrianna seems altogether too confident of her abilities.  I do not believe she is as strong as she thinks she is."

_"Why you..." thought Aubri and glared._

"Don't do that, child!" snapped Aunt Ondrea, "I can't stand it when you do that.  It makes you look like one of those creatures from the other side."

_"Oh that's real nice." _  

Aubri finally spoke up.

"I do have a name you know."

Aunt Ondrea turned to her with a mix of anger and surprise on her face.

"And," she conntinued, "I am thirteen, not eight."

"Well, I've always said that if you want to achieve your status as a young woman, you better start acting like one.  Never know it, the way you act."

"Well, I'm sorry that my behavior isn't up to your standards Aunt, but I can't change that."  Aubri got up cooly and added a very casual, "C'ya Ciara," in departure.

Aubri had had enough of Aunt Ondrea for a day.  Although Aubrianna had to deal wiht Aunt Ondrea almost every day, she still knew how to get under her skin and get Aubrianna angry.  

_"Lucky Ciara," thought Aubri, "she gets mother and I get the old sour-puss."_

If it had been Ciara, she probably would still be sitting there politely agreeing with Aunt Ondrea.  Actually, Aubri was a bit surprised when Ciara stood up for her.  

Ciara was really a cool sister, other than being incredibly annoyingly perfect at everything, she had enough patience to deal with Aunt Ondrea, Aubri, and her mother in a single day, which was something that Aubri didn't have.  

There were major differences between the two.  Ciara would get mad (which was a rare occasion), have herself a good cry and then be ready to apologize the next day.  Aubrianna would build up the anger and then just burst.  She would not have herself a good cry, she'd just hold a grudge one or two (or longer) days. 

In fact, fights with Aunt Ondrea weren't really all that uncommon.  Aunt Ondrea was a crotchety old lady, (who became that way before she hit middle age) and Aubrianna was a tall thirteen-year-old with a bad temper.  To put it politely, their personalities didn't exactly fit.

Aubrianna didn't notice where her feet were taking her.  All that mattered was that they were taking her as far away from Aunt Ondrea as possible.

Aubri roamed at her usual brisk pace through the palace halls. She turned into the library and went down three fights of floor to the bottom level.  She checked to see that no one was there and then made her way through the exhibits.  She finally arrived at a blank wall in the farthest corner of the library.  Then she said, "Aubrianna of the royal blood line requests admittance to your chambers."

Aubri took out a small dagger and cut the tip of her finger.  She pressed her finger to the face of the stone wall and it began to ripple.  Soon, the wall wasn't there anymore.  She stepped inside and said a spell to make the wall reappear.

Aubrianna was in complete darkness.  She reached down to unhook an anklet she wore.  She blew for a second, and it glowed faintly.  She then made her way through a narrow corridor carved out of stone.

It brought back so many memories, most of them bad ones.  Aubrianna tried to forget about them as much as she could, but they came as if in a flood.  They would not be kept out.  Aubri then found her self drowned in memories.


End file.
